Speaking

Speaking is an interactive skill, which involves listening and speaking. To develop it, it is necessary to be exposed to the spoken language and practice it as much as possible. Besides, it is important to develop speaking skills to be able to communicate orally with other people, since it is the most common way to talk in real-life situations.

Speaking skills allow communicating using real-life situations. When communicating, the speaker can produce a formal, informal or semiformal conversation, depending to the person to whom is directed to.

Examples:

• Question-answer
• Introducing themselves
• Describing
• Arguing
• Participating

Speaking subskills allow the speaker to convey what he/she is talking about. such as:

• Knowing what and how to say
• Conveying clear ideas
• Organizing content sequentially
• Giving points of view
• Talk in order with people

Objective

Express clear and fluent messages to the listener, following a cognitive process that goes from conceptual planning to actual speaking.

1. Formulate ideas
2. Order sentence structures
3. Express/communicate

While this process is carried out, the speaker develops fluency and speech.

Fluency
It is the ability to talk like a native speaker. The speaker is able to use grammar and vocabulary, to make correct stress and intonation, to show gestures and facial expressions, and to make contractions.

Speech
It is the ability to encode and transmit the message. The speaker has to recognize, imitate and produce the sounds.

How speaking is developed

Speaking is produced when the listener absorbs the sounds, internalizes the rules in order to communicate. 

Importance

Communicating is the main means to interact with people, either in the classroom or outside, for example:

In the classroom: 

• To ask some clarifications of the problems.
• To participate in a group.
• To present something.

Outside:

• Interview for jobs
• Meetings
• Give a speech
• Interact with others

Activities to develop speaking

Depending on the approach chosen:

• Learning the English language as skill
• Developing the speaking skill with expositions and production

... learners can do some activities to put into practice their speaking. 

For example:

• Debates
• Role-plays
• Discussions

If you are a learner, you need to work actively and cooperatively

If you are a teacher, you must encourage learners to practice as much as they can, correcting their mistakes (grammar, pronunciation, stress).

These websites to improve speaking skill in the English language:

• English Speak

It is a website to improve English and communicative skills. It is suitable for all ages at any level (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1), and it will allow learners to practice their speaking through listenings about real-life conversations, which they will have to repeat. Learners can choose the speed of each audio, normal or slow, and look for the transcription if the audio is not understandable for them.

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• My language exchange

This website allows users to exchange their language to the one they want to learn, practice and improve to achieve fluency with native speakers. It is suitable for adults aged 18 and up at any level. Users can talk synchronously or asynchronously, by sending voice messages or having video calls to improve their speaking skills.

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• Busuu

 

This is a website designed to provide a complete self-study environment for language learners. It is suitable for all ages and is developed using the CEFR, ranging from complete beginner (A1) to complete fluency (B2). Each lesson is focused on a particular communicative focus (introducing yourself, describing your hometown, or ordering food in a restaurant). Lessons include vocabulary and grammar lessons with audio, translation and multiple-choice exercises for learners to develop speaking, not only through repetition but also through recordings to learn vocabulary and grammar in context.

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• Free4Talk

This is a language practice community in which users aged 17 and up can talk with people from around the world to improve their speaking skills through practice. Each person from the community informs their level of English and his/her interests, so users can talk about what they want according to their level.

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• Duolingo

It is a website suitable for all ages at any level to start learning, practicing and improving a foreign language, like English. It allows learners to build and discover the foreign language without focusing on rules, because of its implicit learning.  Every lesson is based on real life situations, so learners can learn about useful vocabulary and grammar to use while talking to someone. Also, it allows learners to record their voice to check their pronunciation and intonation when repeating short phrases, and receive feedback to improve them.